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News, features and resources for media and publishing professionals. Friday, March 9, 2001 Blogs | Subscribe | Interviews | Events | Films | Book Blog Media Cynic | Forum | Advertising | Classifieds | Jobs Liberation and PlanetOut Cancel Merger Plans Liberation Publications Inc. (LPI) and PlanetOut Corp. have announced the termination of their previously announced plan to merge the two companies. In the joint announcement, the companies said that during the period of time in which the letter of intent was in effect, the companies had made substantial progress in plans to integrate their resources. However, changes in the investment environment and the subsequent announcement of the merger of PlanetOut with Online Partners (Gay.com) caused both LPI and PlanetOut to first put their merger discussions on hold, and now to formally terminate them. LPI is a publisher of magazines and books targeting the gay and lesbian market, with titles including The Advocate and Out magazines, and Alyson Books; PlanetOut Corp. is an online media and services company serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community. ``We continue to see great synergies between our print publications and the online media of PlanetOut and Online Partners,'' remarked Jim Franklin, president of LPI. ``Once PlanetOut and Online Partners complete their merger transaction and absorb all the changes that will take place, we intend to reconvene and explore how to best realize those synergies.'' In the meantime, LPI and PlanetOut will continue to work together on a number of fronts, such as providing The Advocate's headline news content to PlanetOut, and various cross-promotion and joint marketing efforts. ``Offering quality media and services to our customers is our main goal, and we believe that working with LPI in a variety of ways continues to make sense in furthering that goal,'' said Megan Smith, CEO of PlanetOut. ``While our current priority is a successful merger with Online Partners, we intend to continue working with LPI so that we all benefit from our shared mission of serving the gay and lesbian community.'' Related Links: · The Advocate · PlanetOut Corp. · Gay.com Click here to return to the homepage of The Write NewsTM Click here to subscribe to our free weekly email newsletter. www.writenews.com Copyright © 1997-2007 by Writers Write, Inc. All Rights Reserved.